The locking of the election ballot box at National Lottery Hall, Polling Station One, of Kebele 01/02, Arada Sub-city on May 23, 2010, at 12:00pm, by the chief election official of the polling station from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) was done in the presence of Thijs Berman, chief election observer of the European Union (EU); civil society observers; party representatives; and the media.

Thousands of people from all over Addis Abeba converged on Meskel Square on Wednesday, May 25, 2010, to denounce Human Rights Watch (HRW) for its criticism of the 2010 election and to express their support for the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). As shown in the picture, part of the crowd headed for the square from Bole. The election was not fair or transparent, the HRW report, released on May 24, said. The rally was attended by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who made a magnanimous speech that was often interrupted by applause.

An extreme jaywalker jumps from one side of the Ring Road barrier to the other near Bole Michael, on May 26, 2010. The act is punishable by a 60 Br fine, according to the Addis Abeba Administration Road and Traffic Safety Regulation. The Ring Road, which has bridges at very long intervals, often has people jumping over its barriers. The act is overlooked by the authorities, and is rarely punished.

Ethiopian Airlines announced its biggest increase in flight frequencies ever to 20 of its destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the US, beginning June 16, 2010, for its summer season timetable. Accordingly, the number of flights to these destinations will grow from 104 to 164, by introducing an additional 60 flights.

The biggest increases will occur on African routes. Ethiopian will now fly 12 times a week to Nairobi, Entebbe, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Kilimanjaro. Flights to Djibouti will increase from seven to 14.

Washington DC will be served by seven flights per week, up from four. Stockholm, Paris and Frankfurt will collectively get 17 flights, up from 13. There will also be four flights to Hong Kong, up from three.

“We are experiencing rapid growth and progress in our operations through out our network, especially in Africa. We believe that the decision to step up frequencies reinforces the airline’s commitment to avail convenient and adequate services to its customers around the globe,” Tewolde G. Mariam, Chief Operating Officer of Ethiopian Airlines, said in a written statement. “Passengers looking to travel to many of Ethiopian’s destinations will have more choices and flexibility with the additional frequencies.”

The court has further adjourned the case of Ayele Debela, manager and major shareholder of ADH International to June 7, 2010, after defence lawyers requested additional time to finalise their response to the injunction claim of the prosecutors on Ayele’s properties.

Ayele was found guilty of illegal banking, tax evasion, and money laundering on May 11, 2010, and is awaiting the court’s verdict on the sentence. In addition, the prosecutors of the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) also presented a list of Ayele’s properties to be frozen, but defence lawyers were not able to finalise their defence by May 27, 2010, against the prosecutors’ claim. The list of properties includes several vehicles and shares in Nib International Bank (NIB), United Bank (UB), and Wegagen Bank.

“The list is long, and we were not able to prepare our defence on some of the properties; since it is election time, it was difficult to find administrative officials,” the defence lawyers told the court.

The court adjourned the case to June 7, 2010, despite objections from the ERCA prosecutors.

New Farming SC in Wolkite

A new agricultural development share company was established in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) Regional State, Gurage Zone, Wolkite Town by 20 investors who are involved in vegetable and fruit production.

The 20 investors contributed plots that they held towards the share company, making up a total of 1,000ht. They also leased 30ht from the town’s administration.

They will use the plot for the installation of a cooling machine, fertiliser store, and packaging machine. The investors came up with collective expenditures for services like transportation, fertiliser, and packing products.

WSP International Management Consultancy, a UK based firm, was recruited by the World Bank to work with the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) to inspect the capability of consultancy and construction companies in the roads sector, going back 15 years. The company will also conduct research on the quality and standards of roads in Ethiopia.

The consultant will stay on for two and a half years. ERA is said to be one of the most prominent authorities, receiving a large budget for the construction of roads all over the country. The authority had requested a total budget of 166 billion Br of the Federal Government for the next five-year Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to Eradicate Poverty (PASDEP). The government returned the plan back to the ERA, instructing it to get its budget within the range of 100 billion Br to 120 billion Br, which the authority is still working on.

The US Embassy in Addis Abeba announced on May 27, 2010, that it had increased visa application fees and introduced a new application form for non-immigrant applicants; the fees are to be paid to the embassy through Abyssinia Bank.

The increases in the application fees were said to be due to the increase in the actual consular operating expenses for US embassies and consulates worldwide and other centres that provide consular services to both US and foreign citizens. US law requires the department to attempt to recover the costs of processing non-immigrant visas through the collection of application fees. The changes will be effective, as of June 4, 2010. Among the increased non-immigrant visa application fees, student and exchange visitor visa seekers will pay 140 dollars.

The new web based DS-160 visa application form for non-immigrant applicants, which is an interactive form to be submitted to the Consular Section via the Internet, will be applicable beginning June 1, 2010. The expanded fee collections will include a service for applicants to collect their passports and visas from any of the 24 branches of Abyssinia Bank in Addis Abeba with a service charge of 50Br to be effective as of June 4, 2010.

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), high government officials from relevant ministries, the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the World Bank will be launching a study on the value of the Ethiopian protected areas system on Tuesday, June 1, 2010, at Hilton Hotel, Harrar Grill.

The study aims to dispel the perception that protected areas are merely playgrounds for wealthy tourists. The study will indentify how protected areas contribute to the development of the country. The SDPASE project is also supported by the UNDP. GTZ International Service Ethiopia has been selected by the EWCA to be the implementing partner for the first phase of the project.

The short-term election observers of the European Union (EU) arrived at Bole International Airport on Saturday, May 15, 2010.

A total of 60 short-term observers from the EU will be deployed to all regions of Ethiopia on Monday, May 17, 2010. The Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission, Thijs Berman, who had left to attend an EU Parliament meeting, returned to Ethiopia with these observers, a press release issued by the European Union Election Observation Mission stated.

“We hope that the presence of EU observers will contribute to the integrity and credibility of the election process,” Berman said.

The chief observer will hold a meeting with political party representatives, candidates, government and election officials, civil society representatives, and the media.

The designated project includes the establishment of surgical device management and provision of phachoemulsification services. On the job training for local staff will also be part and parcel of the project. The project, which will be implemented through the mutual consultation of KOICA and the hospital, is expected to be completed in one year and benefit more than one thousand people per year.

The Revenue and Customs Authority under the Addis Abeba City Administration’s Economic and Finance Bureau managed to collect exactly half of the 5.4 billion Br it targeted for the whole 2009/10, fiscal year during the last seven months.

The 2.7 billion Br revenue collected from tax and non-tax income, including land lease fees, has shown a 49pc increase from what the authority achieved during the same time last year, according to Belay Tafesse, director general of the authority.

Its business process reengineering (BPR), efficient information gathering (collecting finger prints and cash register machines), and law enforcement contributed to achieving the amount gathered.

“But this is not that much satisfactory, considering the potential,” Belay said, also indicating that the rising number of illegal trades in the city has contributed negatively to the number.

The Addis Abeba Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) made a feasibility study of the master plan for waste disposal in the city.

The plan to dispose of waste through pipelines has been presented to stakeholders prior to the commencement of construction.

AAWSA currently deploys trucks and pipelines for sewerage disposal. However, the authority plans to upgrade the city’s disposal by an additional 800 pipelines.

The design for the eastern sewerage system’s master plan, which has been finalised will benefit residents around Kotebe, Yeka, Bole and CMC areas and will upgrade capacity by over 40pc, according to a press release by the Addis Abeba City Government Communications Affairs.

The master plan for the eastern sewerage system has been finalised and construction will begin in the next fiscal year as soon as the budget has been secured, according to Getnet Gessese, communication affair work process leader at the authority. 

The implementation is expected to benefit some 840,000 residents.

The Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Association held an award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel on March 3, 2010, occasioning the closing of the 14th Addis Chamber International Trade Fair.

The first award for Best Stand was given to Al-Sam Plc, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Lucky Exports, Italian Trade Commission, MIDROC Technology Group, SNS Household and Office Furniture, Techtra Engineering, Petram Plc, MCO of the Federal Republic of Germany, Holland Car Plc and Q Diagnostics Plc. The second award for Special Partnership was given to GTZ-AMES-E.

The last award for sponsorship was given to Al-Sam Plc, the Development Bank of Ethiopia, Equatorial Business Group, Ethiopian Airlines, Omicron Engineering Plc, Sonic Screen Advertising, I-Print Advertising, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation and United Insurance SC.

The trade fair that took place at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from February 25 to March 3, 2010 brought together more than 118 local business companies and 108 foreign companies from 23 countries 

The inauguration of the new Ethiopian Institute for Agriculture, Building Construction and City Development (EIABC) was held yesterday, March 6, 2010, at Addis Abeba University (AAU) South Campus.

Demeke Mekonnen minister of Education, Junedin Sado minister of Science and Technology, Andreas Esheté (Prof) president of AAU and Dirk Hebel, Scientific Director of EIABC attended the inaugural ceremony and presented speeches on the significance of the institute.

The EIABC is one of the eight new semiautonomous institutes of technology being introduced in the country at various universities and is part of the overall university reform being conducted by the Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ECBP) and the Ministry of Education.

The university reform component is focused on the restructuring of governance and study programmes as well as technology transfers, standards, and benchmarks.

The ECA hosted the Civil Society Assembly for Assessing Development Challenges in African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on March 4 and 5, 2010.

The assembly reviewed the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The Brussels Programme reviewed the last 10 year plan since coming to a close and proposed action plans for the coming 10 years.

There are 33 LDCs from Africa including Ethiopia. Cape Verde recently got off of the list of LDCs.

The action plan is to enable the LDCs to reach at least seven per cent of commodity driven growth. The LDCs economic growth is dropping because they are only engaged in exporting primary commodities.

Their exports face structural difficulties since there is no diversified exports, according to Adrian Gauci, economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

In light of these problems, the proposed growth rate may not be possible for the coming two years. The inadequate infrastructure, small economy, less skilled human power is to blame for slow growth rate.

The new package of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), concessional facilities, to support low-income countries, became effective as of January 7, 2010.

This far-reaching reform more than doubles lending resources, provides exceptional interest relief, and offers new lending instruments that are more flexible and responsive to individual country needs, according to an IMF press release.

Key elements of the reform include three new lending instruments, interest relief, and permanently higher concessionality.

The Extended Credit Facility will provide flexible medium-term support; the Standby Credit Facility will address short-term and precautionary needs; and the Rapid Credit facility will offer emergency support with limited conditionality.

The Fund has also relieved developing countries from paying interest on outstanding IMF concessional loans until the end of 2011 to help low-income countries cope with the global crisis. Permanently higher concessionality of Fund financial support refers to regularly reviewed annual interest rates so as to preserve a higher level of concessionality.